Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Figure Out The State

Dear lazyweb,

When I go to an online store to purchase something, it's the usual routine. You ask me to fill up my shopping cart, select a shipping method, and then log in with the account I made -or- sign up. I give you a billing address and a shipping address, but why do you always insist on having me scroll through a combo box as tall as the browser window to select my state? I give you my city and ZIP code, can't you figure it out from there? I have even been to some sites that figure out the city/location name based on your ZIP code. I *know* you can do this, so how about you stop asking me for my state all the time. Let me give you the ZIP and you go from there.

Is there a legitimate reason that online shopping carts can't figure out the US state based on ZIP code?

What, is it too much to ask for you to type the letter "H" in the big scary select box, considering you've got the only state that starts with "H"? Try hitting "N" between 5 and seven times to get "North Carolina".